A wide area network covers and interconnects the world. This network facilitates innumerable types of communications including data communications and voice communications. The voice communications may be carried over the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) while the data communications may be carried over the Internet using data communications protocols such as TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) and UDP (User Datagram Protocol). These two networks as well as others are interconnected such that electronic signals may be transferred between them, back and forth, depending upon the type of electronic signal, the originating point of the electronic signal, and the destination of the electronic signal.
People throughout the world have access to the Internet and the PSTN. The backbone that comprises the Internet runs thru much of our environment. This infrastructure is made up of many components including fixed and rigid connections, cabling, routers, switches and the like. It also includes user specific equipment such as Asymetric Digital Subscriber Lines (ADSL) and cable modem connections.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) has grown in popularity. VoIP is an acronym that stands for the concept of carrying voice communications, usually carried over the PSTN, over the Internet. These voice communications are carried over the Internet in small data packets that are disassembled at a transmission point on the Internet and reassembled at receipt point when the transmission reaches a recipient or jumps from the Internet to another network, such as the PSTN. When a communication jumps from the Internet to the PSTN, a charge may be levied to the sender of the communication or the entity supporting the communication by an entity maintaining a gateway that facilitates the jump of the communication between networks. This gateway may perform translation functions to facilitate the transfer of the communication between networks.
In certain telephony services, the user is required to pay for being connected, performing outgoing calls to the public switched telephony network (PSTN), and for additional services such as voice mails, Direct Inward Dialing (DID) numbers, etc. in certain VoIP services, peer-to-peer calls between users of the same VoIP service providers may be free of charge. However, when a user wants to place a call outside of the Internet, to an external landline or to a cellular phone, the user is often charged as a method of generating revenues for the VoIP service provider.